YMCA finds new director

ESCONDIDO -- After a two-month nationwide search, the Palomar
Family YMCA has chosen a permanent executive director to start Nov.
1.

Alfredo Velasco, 37, is returning to Escondido's YMCA, at 1050
N. Broadway, where he served as associate executive director
overseeing operations and finances for the day camp, gymnastics,
community programs, and youth and adult sports from 1994 to 1998.
He is replacing Steve Totten, who resigned recently as executive
director after 17 years of service.

Velasco grew up in Burbank and graduated from UCLA in 1991 with
a bachelor's degree in history. He said his first job after college
was with the YMCA, where he has served now for 13 years. He was
programs director at the Jackie Robinson YMCA in Southeast San
Diego and is currently the executive director of the Peninsula
Family YMCA in Point Loma, where he has raised $3.2 million toward
its capital expansion.

In August, Palomar Family YMCA Vice President Dick Chapel said
the board was looking for someone who could expand services at the
Y, develop its board of directors and volunteer program, tap into
community resources, raise funds and balance a budget by making
cuts if necessary.

In the last fiscal year, which ended June 30, the YMCA's
revenues were $4.91 million and expenses were $5.08 million,
leaving the 2003-04 operating budget $170,000 short.

Chapel said Velasco was chosen from a pool of 47 applicants.
Each applicant went through more than a dozen group and individual
interviews with the YMCA's seven-member board, before three
finalists were chosen and Velasco then emerged as the top pick.

Velasco said his salary is still being negotiated but the
position was advertised as being between $100,000 and $130,000.

On Tuesday, Chapel and other YMCA officials said after all the
hard work, Velasco was just what they were looking for.

"It's a very involved process to make sure the best candidate
was chosen," said Sabra Bonelli, associate executive director. "I
couldn't be happier with the selection."

Aside from his competence for the position, Bonelli said Velasco
personally cares about the future of Escondido.

"With him I think we have the opportunity to go far," she said.
"I really feel like he's passionate about the city of Escondido …
because he's originally from the area."

Velasco says he is looking forward to working in a community he
knows and a facility he has put time and energy in.

"Although I haven't been there for six years, in some ways it is
coming back home," he said in a phone interview Tuesday.

Velasco said he and his wife Laura are in the process of moving
back to Escondido from San Diego with their three children; Benito,
4, Olivia, 2, and 5-month-old Gabriel.

"I think it is important as executive director of a YMCA to live
near the service area," he said. "We are looking forward to making
the Palomar YMCA community our home."

Bonelli said the YMCA is also happy to have a Latino director
who speaks Spanish and can relate to a large part of the service
area. Velasco said the YMCA's mission is to serve the entire
community and his background will allow him to do that.